All posts in The Burning Dark

I’ve got at least two books out this year – Hang Wire and The Burning Dark – but also a couple of other things. The first of which is Cold War, a standalone novelette set in the universe of The Burning Dark.

As you know, I’ve got two books out in 2014 – Hang Wire, an urban fantasy from Angry Robot, and The Burning Dark, a dark space opera from Titan (in the UK; Tor in the US). Their release dates are pretty close together in the UK – February 6th for Hang Wire, and March 25th for The Burning Dark. Which is tricky.

Yep. This is your chance to get hold of The Burning Dark nearly THREE WEEKS prior to publication. The Titan paperback will be on sale at Forbidden Planet. Stock will be limited. When they are gone, they are gone. But if you can make it in, you’ll be among the first in the world to buy the book. It’s not out anywhere – UK or North America – until March 25th.

Here’s the cover for the Titan edition:

So – this is your chance to grab it, nice and early!

Oh, and there is more, too.

Also released that night is the limited edition hardcover of Hang Wire. This features a cover in alternate colours, and is limited to just 100 copies, all signed and numbered. This hardcover is exclusive to Forbidden Planet.

The regular paperback of Hang Wire will be available as well, of course.

A Facebook event page will be set up shortly, although you don’t need to RSVP to attend. If you can’t make it, you can still order your copies of Hang Wire and The Burning Darkdirect from Forbidden Planet.

And… one more thing.

Everybody who comes to Forbidden Planet will go into the draw for my giant pre-order contest (even though it’s after the official release of Hang Wire). I’m keeping the details of the contest prize a secret until January 6th, but trust me, you will want to be in the draw. The same rules will apply – buy one book, get one contest entry. Buy both books, get four contest entries. Buy the limited edition Hang Wire hardcover… well, I’ll have to think of something special! Full details of the contest will be posted in the New Year.

I was mulling over a wrap-up post for 2013, but this year has been a little weird, writing-wise, and I wasn’t sure there would be much to post. However, inspired by Chuck Wendig’s wrap-up – in which he mentions an interesting project or two that I have a hand in – I figured I should really sit down and work out what the hell I’ve been doing this year. And what I need to be doing next.

So! 2013?

Despite feeling like I haven’t done much, 2013 was a really good year for me. Having sold The Burning Dark to Tor around Easter 2012 as a standalone novel, this year I sold them two more books – The Jovian Conspiracy and The Stars Below – in the same universe. A few months later, UK and Commonwealth rights to all three books were sold to Titan. Tor revealed the amazing cover, by Will Staehle – who was also responsible for each of my Angry Robot covers – back in July.

I also wrote – and sold – Cold War, a standalone novelette set in the universe of The Burning Dark, to Tor.com.

I had one book published – The Age Atomic, a sequel to Empire State, came out from Angry Robot in April. Alongside the US and UK paperbacks came a limited, numbered collector’s edition hardcover of this title and of Empire State, complete with a new cover by Will Staehle. This made me the only Angry Robot author, so far, to have each of their novels released as a hardback.

On top of this, as Chuck mentions over at his blog, I worked with him on a comic pitch that, with a bit of luck, we’ll be able to talk about next year. Speaking of comics, the first three parts of my Prohibition urban fantasy, The Sentinel, came out as part of the VS Comics digital anthology.

Events I attended were the Sci-Fi Weekender in North Wales (I had the flu the whole weekend, and have never been so cold in all my life), EdgeLit in Derby, Andromeda One in Birmingham, Nine Worlds in London, LoneStarCon/WorldCon in San Antonio, and World Fantasy in Brighton. If I to pick a favourite, it must be Nine Worlds – from tremendous organisation to imaginative and fresh programming, this was THE event of 2013.

So, behind-the-scenes, things were pretty busy, and work-wise this was a really good year. In fact, my biggest year yet.

Writing-wise, it was an odd one. From October 2012 through to August 2013 I was editing two books at once – The Burning Dark, and Hang Wire – which was a bit of a challenge. Once those were done, I spent a couple of months outlining The Jovian Conspiracy and got that book underway.

Which means it doesn’t feel like I’ve written much this year, even though “editing” really means “rewriting and rewriting and rewriting”. It’s also hard to track, as a straight eight-hour day of work on novel edits can actually result in a negative word count. There’s probably an easy way to track it, but I haven’t tried it yet!

As for 2014…

I’m under contract to write three novels, only one of which (The Jovian Conspiracy) is due next year. I’m working on it now, and that’s the number one priority.

Once that is in, I’ve got an urban-ish fantasy novel to finish, and a crime novel to write, before I get started on The Stars Below. So that’s one novel to finish, two to start and finish, and one to at least start. Minimum. I also have another long-short story to do, although hopefully I can knock that off before the end of 2013.

That comic project with Chuck should start to kick off… and there may be a couple of other projects in this field to talk about. The final part of The Sentinel should drop from VS Comics early in the year, although that was actually written a while ago.

The only event I’m locked in for so far is WorldCon, which in 2014 is being held in London, but there’s no doubt I’ll be at other events too.

But the big thing for 2014 is that I’ve got two books out! Hang Wire is released by Angry Robot on January 28th (US/eBook) and February 6th (UK), and The Burning Dark is out March 25th from Titan (UK/Commonwealth) and Tor (US). There’s not much of a gap between them and launch-wise, we’re cooking up something big, so stay tuned. There’s also a kick-ass pre-order contest starting in January. Cold War will be out around the same time as The Burning Dark.

So that was my 2013. An odd year, but a good one. 2014 is shaping up to be much bigger and busier, which is just how it should be. Onward!

Dropped on a frozen planet under suspicious circumstances, a group of marines struggles to discover the true objective of their mission.

My thanks to my editor, Paul Stevens, and Tor’s Art Director, Irene Gallo. “Novelette”, in case you were wondering, is a strange little category of fiction, encompassing fiction between 7,500 and 17,500 words in length. Cold War is squarely in the middle at 11,000 words.

So this year is going pretty fast, right? But that’s okay… they say it’s the good years that fly by. I’m not sure who “they” are, but I’ll take that.

I’ve been immersed in my current work-in-progress, The Jovian Conspiracy. It’s book 2 of what is vaguely called The Spider Wars (although that’s more a catch-all rather than an official series title), the first instalment of which – The Burning Dark – is out in about four months. I’m hoping to have the first draft of The Jovian Conspiracy done by the end of the year, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, physical ARCs of Hang Wire went out into the world, as seen here. Hang Wire is out from Angry Robot in February 2014, and you can find out more about it here. eARCs also went up on NetGalley – not sure how long they stay online, but I have a feeling the physical ARCs are in limited supply, so get in while you can.

Having two books out almost at once is a bit of a juggling act – both are available for pre-order from most places. But to keep things interesting, I’ve got a contest bubbling away. It’ll launch in the New Year, but hang on to your pre-order receipts, because you’ll need them to enter. Every pre-order of Hang Wire and The Burning Dark gets you an entry; pre-order both, you get four entries. And the prize pack is quite something, let me tell you. Seriously. Full details coming in January!

Just a quick one as I’m off to Brighton for World Fantasy. I’m not appearing on any panels, nor do I have a reading, but I might pop in to the mass author signing, which takes place on Friday 1st November, 8.30-10.00pm in the Oxford/Cambridge Suite. If you can’t find me there, I’ll be around the place the whole weekend! In particular, Titan are hosting a carnival party on Saturday 2nd November, 4-6pm in the Regency Suite. The Burning Dark isn’t out until March next year, but I’ll be joining the other Titan authors there!

North American readers – fancy a chance to get your hands on The Burning Dark six months before it’s out? Then read on…

The Burning Dark is one of five ARCs up for grabs in Tor’s October Grab Bag Sweepstakes! The contest ends on 31st October 2013, and is open to residents of the US and Canada, and all you need to do is click this link and fill out an entry. Winners will be drawn 1st November!

In case it needed to be any more official, here’s the Publisher’s Marketplace notice of Titan buying The Burning Dark, The Jovian Conspiracy, and The Stars Below:

Woot!

The deal got a nice mention over at Tor.com, in last week’s British Genre Fiction Focus. Niall Alexander gave a lovely write-up on the book, then recommended people check out Empire State – something I can totally get behind! Thanks, Niall!

Lastly, The Bookseller picked up the announcement this week. They went a little to town on my career in comics – which currently stands at The Sentinel for VS Comics and… something else I can’t talk about yet – but it’s always a pleasure to be in their news feed!

This week I wrote an 11,000-word novelette that ties into one of my books (including a 6,700-word stretch of writing on Saturday, which is a personal record for me, and something I don’t recommend anyone try unless they like being a zombie for a day afterwards), and was back into the final round of edits on Hang Wire. But tomorrow I’m off to Berlin for four days – a nice rest, before getting back into it all next week.

I shall, of course, be keeping my eyes firmly on this story… especially as we’re expected to have the full list of recovered episodes on Friday! I shall therefore be doing this later in the week:

As you know, Tor are publishing The Burning Dark in the US and Canada in March 2014, with The Jovian Conspiracy and The Stars Below following in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

I’m pleased to announce that here in the UK, the books will be published by Titan Books, starting in March 2014. Here’s the official press release:

“A widescreen Hollywood spectacular in novel form, littered with ‘wow’ moments and a few sly in-jokes for hardcore comicbook fans to catch. It’s ballsy, bright and tight, poignant at its core, not to be missed.”

Titan Books are delighted to announce the acquisition of a three-book series from the multi-award-winning author of Empire State, Adam Christopher. The Spider Wars series is a fusion of science fiction thriller and psychological suspense [Titan Books, original paperback, March 2014].

The Burning Dark and its sequels are a chilling exploration of guilt, loss, and the dimensions that lurk beneath our own. The first novel follows Captain Idaho Cleveland on one last mission before early retirement: decommissioning the U-Star Coast City, a distant research outpost orbiting the toxic star Shadow.

Titan Books will publish The Burning Dark in original paperback in the UK and Commonwealth in March 2014, followed by two further books in the series.

Adam Christopher is a novelist and comic writer. In 2010, as an editor, Christopher won a Sir Julius Vogel award, New Zealand’s highest science fiction honour. His debut novel, Empire State, was SciFiNow’s Book of the Year and a Financial Times Book of the Year for 2012. In 2013, he was nominated for the Sir Julius Vogel award for Best New Talent, with Empire State shortlisted for Best Novel. Born in New Zealand, he has lived in Great Britain since 2006. You can find him online at www.adamchristopher.co.uk and on Twitter @ghostfinder.

Natalie Laverick bought the rights from Stacia Decker at the Donald Maass Agency. She writes: “The Burning Dark is a wonderfully dark space opera with an intensely creepy atmosphere and absorbing mystery at its centre. Adam Christopher is a fantastic writer and we’re thrilled to be adding this series to our growing fiction list.”

Praise for Adam Christopher’s Empire State:

“Adam Christopher’s debut novel is a noir, Philip K Dick-ish science fiction superhero story… a novel of surreal resonances, things that are like other things, plot turns that hearken to other plot turns. It’s often fascinating, as captivating as a kaleidoscope… just feel it in all its weird glory.”

Needless to say, I’m thrilled to be with Titan Books in the UK – they’re a great house, publishers of Cory Doctorow, Kim Newman, Danie Ware, and many others, as well as being the home of one of my favourite things in the world, the Hard Case Crime imprint.

It’s a busy week in the run-up to Nine Worlds, which kicks off this Friday. You can see my full schedule here.

Yesterday the cover for my fourth novel from Angry Robot, Hang Wire, was revealed over at Sword and Laser. Hang Wire is out in February 2014, and will be available as both a regular paperback and as another limited edition Forbidden Planet-exclusive hardcover. The paperback is black…

…while the hardcover is red…

I’m totally in love with these covers, too! And with Hang Wire, that means Will has done a total of eight covers for me across two different publishers (Empire State, Empire State limited edition, Seven Wonders, The Age Atomic, Hang Wire, Hang Wire limited edition, The Burning Dark, and Two Tales of San Ventura).

With The Burning Dark Christopher has produced a widescreen Hollywood spectacular in novel form, littered with ‘wow’ moments and a few sly injokes for hardcore comic book fans to catch. Not to be missed.

A riveting SF mystery reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.

Being in the Tor catalogue is something of a Big Moment for me, so there may have been a little Snoopy dancing last night. And my thanks to James and Martha for two stunning blurbs.

Finally, a date for your diaries – fellow author and superlatively nice chap James Smythe and I will be at Waterstones Deansgate in Manchester on Thursday 5th September to talk about our work. Doors open at 7pm and tickets are £5/£5 from the store – I’ll post a link to the event when the page goes live.